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Abstract

Given the water scarcity becoming endemic to a large portion of the globe, arid region irrigation has resorted to the use of treated, partially treated, or even untreated wastewaters. Such waters contain a number of pollutants, including surfactants. Applied to agricultural lands, these surfactants could affect the fate and transport of other chemicals in the soil, particularly pesticides. A field lysimeter study was undertaken to investigate the effect of nonionic surfactant, Brij35, on the in-soil fate and transport of a commonly used herbicide, metribuzin [4-amino-6-tert-butyl-3-(methylthio)-1,2,4-triazin-5(4H)-one]. Nine PVC lysimeters, 1.0 m long × 0.45 m diameter, were packed with a sandy soil to a bulk density of 1.35 mg m−3. Antibiotic-free cattle manure was applied (10 mg ha−1) at the surface of the lysimeters. Metribuzin was then applied to the soil surface of all lysimeters at a rate of 1.00 kg a.i. ha−1. Each of three aqueous Brij35 solutions, 0, 0.5 and 5 mg L−1 (i.e., “good”, “poor” and “very poor” quality irrigation water) were each applied to the lysimeters in triplicate. Analysis for metribuzin residues in samples of both soil and leachate, collected over a 90-day period, showed the surfactant Brij35 to have increased the mobility of metribuzin in soil, indicating that continued use of poor quality water could influence pesticide transport in agricultural soils, and increase the risk of groundwater contamination.
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